In preparation to write this reflection, I decided to ask some random people this question: “What is the meaning of ‘peace’ to you?” All of them articulated their answers in different ways, but, for all of them, peace generally meant that there are no wars in the world, no problems or suffering, financial stability, no sickness, no deaths in the family, and good relationships with others.
I expected those answers because, naturally, these are the normal conditions anyone “in the world” would hope for to say that they are “at peace.” However, in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you.” Jesus not only qualifies the peace he offers as his peace, but also affirms that it is completely different from the peace we expect in this world. What is then Christ’s peace?
The Fruit of His total Trust in His Father’s Will
For Christ, peace did not mean the absence of conflict, trials and tribulations. It was not a warm feeling in the heart, which came from words such as: “Everything is going to be ok”, or “You will be fine” or “Nothing will ever happen to you.” No, for Christ, peace was the fruit of His total trust in His Father’s will. The inner strength and serenity that He had from knowing that His Father loved Him; the freedom to give His life for us, knowing that His Father would not abandon Him to death. Yes, for Christ, peace was experienced most authentically not in the absence of sufferings and problems but, on the contrary, precisely when experiencing sufferings and tribulations.
That is why He never promised an easy life to those who followed Him. He never said that those who came after Him would experience paradise on earth. On the contrary, what He offered to those who followed Him is expressed in the words of St. Paul in the first reading when he says: “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” The way he proposed was the way He followed: going to the resurrection and eternal life, through the way of the cross.
Thus, His promise was that those who came after Him would receive here and now eternal life, and that those who experienced that life would never taste death. This is the peace that Christ offers: the peace that comes as a fruit of His Paschal Mystery: through his suffering, death and resurrection, Christ has transformed the meaning of life in this world and, consequently, the meaning of peace.
Filled with Peace
I have met people whom I have clearly seen filled with the peace of Christ, in the face of unimaginable sufferings. I have seen a couple who lost a daughter to a very rare case of leukemia, bless God and encourage those attending the wake to take courage in the Lord, who is good. I have witnessed the father of a kid who committed suicide blessing God and experiencing a serenity and a peace that are not explainable by human standards. I have seen a woman whose son was killed exhibit such a sense of peace that she was able to forgive publicly the one who assassinated her son.
A Peace that Sustains
This is the peace the Lord is offering to us during this time of Easter. The peace that the world offers is fleeting, short-lived, and impossible to keep forever. Instead, the peace that Christ offers us through the grace of His Spirit sustains us in the face of any event, because it is the peace that comes from knowing that we are children of God and heirs of an eternal dwelling. In the midst of these trying times, let us ask the Lord to give us His peace so that we may share this peace with others through the witness of our lives. God bless you all!
